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Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Lovage, parsely and basil salad

I’m a firm believer in hard work. If there’s something I’ve
learned from my mother, it’s that everything is better when you know you’ve
earned it. I don’t rest on my achievements, as I know that for every goal
accomplished there is another goal to be conquered. Also, in my case every
success is accompanied by tons of previous failures and possibly messes to be
fixed and clean up, so there’s no resting whatsoever. So I’ve been working on
my thesis, I’ve been editing a manuscript, keeping up with the blog, running,
biking, lifting, keeping up with yard work and trying to stay up-to date with
the endless chores that a house demands. Work, work, work.

Relationships are work too, and as such they deserve time
and respect. Yeah, investing time and energy in romantic relationships may be a
no-brainer for most of us, but friendships and family ties are sometimes easy
to overlook. Since I was finally able to break loose this weekend from my long,
long to-do list, I did my best to keep up with my often-neglected friends and
family, and I spent some quality time with them. I started by saying farewell
to a friend during his last day at work on Friday, and I ended it on a positive
note on Sunday, when I got to spend time with a good friend who moved away and was
back in town for the weekend. And then Saturday was all about family: lunch
with the family and drinks and snacks with the BFF. Eat, eat, eat.

Speaking of friends, some of our closest friends have been
raving for a while now about this great tasting “herb” that’s supposed to change
my life (in a culinary sense). It’s apparently common in their native Romania, but
it can be found in our local farmer’s market too. Its name is lovage and it’s
actually quite lov-ely. Turns out my partner’s parents, also Romanian, have
their own lovage bush and offered us some branches to take home. I immediately
tore a leaf and ate it to know if I wanted it; I did. The aroma reminded me of
the Puerto Rican quintessential herb recao/culantro. It did not taste like it
at all; recao tastes like a much more powerful cilantro, but the lovage leaves
tasted much more like celery. And call
me crazy, but the texture and refreshing aftertaste reminded me of parsley. So
there you go; there’s my crazy description. It smells like recao or cilantro,
but it tastes like celery and it feels like parsley. Crazy or not, I knew
exactly what to make with it. Chop, chop.

I made a salad that featured lovage and herbs. I’m not a big
lettuce eater, and if I make a salad just for myself, half my salad is made from
herbs. Parsley, cilantro and basil are my go-to “salad herbs” but I dropped the
cilantro for this one. I added some strawberries and red peppers for the sweet
notes and texture, I used some cheddar cheese, and I dressed it with olive oil
and lemon juice. That was all. Heavy dressing is not necessary; in fact, I
would strongly discourage it. Unlike lettuce, the herbs bring beautiful aroma
and taste, and you don’t want to mask it with your dressing. No, no, no.

I’ve normally kept my “herb salads” to myself because I’ve
felt like a weirdo. Who does that? Then I found out that the world-famous chef Yotam
Ottolenghi loves to make these kinds of salads, and he has even served them in
his restaurant. I felt validated. As a funny note, the same friends who
introduced me to lovage introduced me to Yotam’s food, and they even gifted me
one of his cookbooks for my birthday. We are going full circle here. My salad
recipe is not based on Yotam’s recipes, but a little shout out here and there doesn’t
hurt anyone (although he is super famous and I’m not, so I don’t think it will accomplish
much). Well, here’s my salad. I hope you like it.